Kockroach

by Tyler Knox

It is the mid-1950s; in a fleabag hotel off Times Square Kockroach, perfectly content with life as an insect, awakens to discover that somehow he's become, of all things, a human. As Kockroach, led by his primitive desires and insectile amorality, navigates through the bizarre human realms of crime, business, politics, and sex, he meets with both great triumph and great disaster.

In Kockroach, a wholly original work of literary noir, Tyler Knox brilliantly turns Kafka's The Metamorphosis on its head.

It is the mid-1950s, and in a fleabag hotel off Times Square, Kockroach, perfectly content with life as an insect, awakens to discover that somehow he's become, of all things, a human. This tragic turn of events would be enough to fling a more highly evolved creature into despair, but cockroaches know no despair. Firmly entrenched in the present tense, they are awesome coping machines, and so Kockroach copes. Step by step, he learns the ways of humans—how to walk, how to talk, how to wear a jaunty brown fedora.

In Times Square he discovers a blistering sea of lights, a great smoking god, walls of glass laden with food, and the opportunity to rise in the human world. Two companions guide him on his way: Mite, an undersized gangster suffering an acute case of existential angst, and Celia Singer, a reserved woman with a disfigured body who finds in Kockroach a key to unlocking her hidden passions.

As Kockroach, led by his primitive desires and insectile amorality, navigates through the bizarre human realms of crime, business, politics, and sex, he meets with both great triumph and great disaster. Will he find success or be squashed flat from above? Will he change humanity, or will humanity change him?

Packed with love, violence, and a perverse sense of humor, Kockroach is the classic tale of an immigrant's search for the American dream as seen from a stunning new perspective.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Novels, Literary Fiction, Noir

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Tyler Knox is the pseudonym of former Philadelphia lawyer William Lashner, known for his Victor Carl legal thriller series, who decided to write under a new name not for the purposes of "rebranding or putting one over my readers ..... but purely for the freedom of doing something completely new."

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author - from the author's site - Photo Credit Sigrid Estrada

Kafka inverted, as a cockroach wakes up to find that it had become human. Knox is doing noir with a twist, an existential novel about human motivations, set in the Times Square of the 1950s. The hard-boiled genre suits the time. There is indeed some social commentary here, as Jerry Blatta, the name our transformed one takes on, living as a gifted mimic but motivated almost entirely by greed and fear, finds himself in a world in which his particular proclivities fit right in. One might see in this an echo of American Psycho. Despite the clear authorial social commentary intent I thought that in its implementation it wound up being more about form than substance, but it was still fun for that. A diverting, entertaining book, not a great one, with some payload on the biology of roaches, and a cast of colorful characters.


The author's personal site

Interviews
-----The Cult - William Lashner - by Rob Hart
-----Main Line Times - William Lashner opines on living the writer's life - by Linda Stein

[Rand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much more than mere homage, Knox has created a work capable of being read entirely divorced from its literary antecedent. That the publisher chose to mention Kafka on the dust jacket is unnecessary yet no less understandable. In a nutshell: a cockroach in a cheap motel assumes the form of a suicide, whilst retaining full memory of his origins—knowledge which allows him to quickly rise to the top of the criminal underworld, and later the no-less cutthroat corporate jungle.

So, this is a hilarious book about ethics and what it means to be human. Questions of fidelity are probed and the differences between wants and needs are delineated. There is a little bit of chess, yes.

A few quibbles: the main character is referred to as "Kockroach" throughout (which becomes kumbersome at times) & in the "correct" German translation, Kafka wrote about a dung beetle, not a roach. But, just as Pluto is in a certain sense a planet, the popular Anglostanding of Gregor Samsa's changed form is and always will be that of a roach.

& the description of the language-acquisition process which Kockroach undergoes is interesting and warrants serious evolutionary/epistemological/entomological/etymological thought which shall not be done in this here space. Suffice it to say that there were parts of that early part of the book that bristled me almost as much as a flying roach in my hair.

The smart, cheeky tone of this book reminded me of another NYC neo-noir, The Wrestler's Cruel Study—that both books exhibit a diminutive supporting character who "trains" the protagonist (in addition to narrating alternating sections) is a further similarity. Though where the sometime-narrator of The Wrestler's Cruel Study is a modeled after Nietzsche, Knox names his character for a parasite that lives off of a cockroach. (Further note on noir as genre: Knox's is set in the early 20th century and is "neo" in its use of more "literary" conventions whereas The Wrestler's Cruel Study is set in the early 1990's while using a similar literary standard.)

Kudos to Knox for this highly enjoyable, inventive, and well-researched send-up. Highly recommended for all fans of noir and any Kafka devotees with a sense of humor.

[Boden Steiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars, I think, means good book for me, but maybe not for a lot of other people. Kockroach is a fun, enjoyable read, but not something that I think is elevated in any way.

The inventive and quirky premise, carried so well in the beginning, allows the story to coast, and in coasting I think that is where things falter a bit. For my taste, I think Knox pulled his punches and didn't allow the character to go dark. He allowed the characters to tip-toe up to it, but failed to follow through with what I felt would be the true nature of the character. Perhaps there was a better ending to be had earlier in the story.

The wit and writing carries some sequences, but I don't think it elevates the novel to any higher experience, The plot is mainly a character arc, so it isn't anything particularly clever. An inventive character isn't enough to get this to the higher tier. Still, I'd recommend the book to a lot of people. Inventive characters are fun to read and the story has some cool character moments.

If you do read this, I'd highly recommend reading Sara Gran's Dope as the 1st part of a double-feature. It takes us to that same world, the underbelly of Times Square in the '50s, but tells a different story with a different perspective. These characters live in each other's world. It gave a little something extra to my reading of Kockroach.

[A.E. Marling]

In the Metamorphosis, Kafka asked us what if a man became an insect. In Kockroach, Tyler Knox asks us what if an insect became a man. Roaches are free of any human empathy. Truth, kindness, and respect for laws would only be so much water running off the bug's glistening back. A roach knows only survival. His creed is to thrive. His soul is hunger.

The insectile sensibilities serve the protagonist well. He exploits everyone he can and builds a financial empire on ruthlessness and crime. Turning to politics, he dominates. Guilt holds others back. He scuttles forward, speaking lies with confidence. To the roach, there's no difference between falsehoods and man truth.

It would be unfair to compare this soulless cockroach masquerading in a human skin-suit with presidential candidate Donald. After all, Kockroach was a self-made bug. Donald got by off his daddy's fortune.

[Dick Varga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kafka would almost crack a smile!

[Hud · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pulpy, imaginative tale told with plenty of humor and a goofy-but-erudite intelligence. The best parts of the book are excerpts of bizarrely detailed perspective from the titular cockroach-turned aspiring mob boss.

Elsewise, wisecracking mobsters and a roster of greasy underworld denizens constantly spill with 1-liners. It's like a noir story told for the Facebook generation, each pastiche image boiled to a simple exaggeration.

Along the way, it feels like we're in for a bit of societal anthropology, but every time before moralizing & cultural commentary appear the story reverts to witty dialogue and pulpy sequences from this 1950s New York City.

It's original, fun, and makes you think - just enough. Good read for summer days, especially if you come in with no expectations.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kockroach, by Tyler Knox, has been the rage among coworkers for a few months, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on one of two galleys that were being tossed around the office. Sloppy seconds (or more appropriately, filthy fourths) was okay with me because the reviews coming from my friends were extremely positive. Phrases like "book of the year" and "revolutionary" emanated from a bunch of self-admitted book snobs. Needless to say, I was thrilled when it was my chance to bring the book home.

The premise is taken from the Franz Kafka playbook. Imagine the antithesis of The Metamorphosis. In the opening chapter we meet Kockroach, a cockroach who wakes up as a human in a seedy motel room off Times Square in the 1940's. Kockroach's disorientation and confusion after waking up as a man provides for a great launch pad for the book's story.

As the story progresses, we meet a diverse cast of characters who help Kockroach unknowingly along the yellow brick path to the American dream. Almost immediately, Kockroach befriends an undersized, Napoleonic crook by the name of Mite. Kockroach learns much from Mite, including the power of money and the importance of keeping animal urges in check. After all, Kockroach may look human, but he retains the spirit of a cockroach throughout.

Knox's use of language is the bell of this literary ball. Kockroach learns to speak by observing others and memorizing their clips and phrases. The noir aspect created when the author uses this tactic makes for an entertaining, albeit at times morose, read.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, about a cockroach who gets turned into a man and ends up becoming a gangster and then a politician! I found I couldn't put the book down; while it was an easy, fun read, it also made me stop and think about how humans act and perceive ourselves and how other species might perceive us. Great fun!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed this inverse of Metamorphosis (and the flip book page corners added to the fun). Naturally a cockroach-turned-man would need a guide, and his sidekick/parasite Mite hits just the right note. Naturally, we get to explore the dregs of society. The drives of fear, hunger, sex and dominance lead to only-too-human behavior. Is this book profound? No. Is it fun? Oh, yes.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the most unusual book I have read in years. If you don't mind the premise that a cockroach awakes to find itself a human, and are willing to go with it, you'll get some laughs and interesting observations on human life, as well as the natural history of cockroaches. I felt the ending was a bit anticlimactic.

[Michael Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fantastic idea. Inverting the Kafka story and having a cockroach turn into a man, "Knox"(a pseudonym of its own) allows for a wildly satirical rant on humanity. Allegorical and cutting, this book surprised me and even inspired me to break my own block I'd been experiencing. Highly recommended!

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an unusual & interesting book. I was hooked from the first sentence, telling how Kockroach wakes up & finds himself a man...

March 2014: Re-read. Terrific. Strange that this book & this author apparently disappeared & noone else has heard of either the book or the author...

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was kind of a cross between The Metamorphosis, Atlas Shrugged, and The Big Sleep. It was awesome!

[Thomas Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A change on the Kafka Metamorphosis. This is about a cockroach who becomes a human and find that his instincts set him up to excel.

[Saleh MoonWalker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Onvan : Kockroach - Nevisande : Tyler Knox - ISBN : 61143332 - ISBN13 : 9780061143335 - Dar 368 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2006

[Pedro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Há 100 anos, Kafka contou-nos a história de um homem que, após uma noite de sonhos inquietantes, se viu transformado numa barata. Um conto surreal, aterrador, e até algo enternecedor, que se tornou um clássico da Literatura.
Nos tempos modernos, Tyler Knox conta-nos a história de uma barata que, após uma noite sem sonhos, se viu transformada em homem. Este metamorfoseado vai tentar sobreviver no mundo implacável do humano aprendendo como se comportar, mas tentando manter os seus instintos animais.

O livro lê-se bem, a ideia é gira e a moral óbvia. Mas não é um grande livro, nem um sucessor digno do clássico. É um livro que entretém, nada mais. A ideia de subverter a Metamorfose de Kafka é interessante, mas no fim de contas resume-se a um livro sobre a Máfia (que, reconheço, não é o meu tema preferido) e bastante inverosímil, não no sentido surreal (acho um exagero a forma como Kockroach vai subindo na sociedade sem qualquer obstáculo).

Já tinha este livro há anos na estante por ler e finalmente calhou na rifa. Uma boa leitura para descansar de clássicos e livros mais exigentes, mas não foi nem o tema nem o desenvolvimento que me cativaram. Apesar da originalidade da ideia, não sei se leria de novo ou se recomendaria sem reservas.

[Martin Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hugely readable and—beneath the pulpy, noirish, and Runyonesque arabesques that give the thing its zing—a surprisingly moving meditation on human identity and desire. I picked up the book expecting a reimagination of Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS, but to consider the conceit that begins the work (a bug turns into a man and not vice versa) the "point" of this work is to do a disservice to Kafka AND to Knox. Knox's sheer brio and self-evident love of tall tales and the American urban gothic come through in virtually every sentence (although I occasionally found his scrappy under-hero Mite's argot a little strained). Kockroach's amorality—he's driven solely by fear and greed—give him a kind of magnetic attraction that makes you, the reader, root for him, even though he's terrifying. That (SPOILER ALERT) he morphs in the end into a creature as tribal, slimy, hungry, and uncomfortable in his body as Richard Nixon makes me ache for the possibility of a sequel, as Kockroach ascends the political ladder. I'm not sure I gleaned anything about Kafka, but I did learn a ton about cockroaches, and along the way I was royally and delightfully entertained. A bravura performance.

[Ron Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the start of Tyler Knox's new novel, a cockroach wakes up and discovers he's been transformed into a man. The scene is crawling with so many clever jokes and allusions to Metamorphosis that for a while you fear the whole thing may be just an extended writing experiment. ("Imagine Penelope coming home to Odysseus after 20 years at the grocery store.") But Knox quickly scurries away from Kafka's original. Whereas poor Gregor Samsa was crippled with despair, when this roach molts into a man's body in a seedy hotel, "he doesn't wonder at how this grossly tragic transformation has happened to him. . . . Cockroaches don't dwell in the past. Firmly entrenched in the present tense, they are awesome coping machines."

Kockroach, as Knox refers to his hero, is one of the oddest innocents ever to creep through American literature, but his coping follows the usual course: helping us see the strangeness of ordinary life by looking at it with fresh eyes (though now he's limited to two lenses, instead of 4,000). "There is much he doesn't know," Knox writes, "but he intends to learn," and even his hotel room offers plenty of mysteries to solve. He must figure out how to use the toilet, how to get dressed in his brown suit and brown wingtips, how to walk in this "pale pathetic" body. Much of this is played for broad, often scatological comedy. Unless you're a real insect lover, some of it will make your flesh crawl. The one sex scene is lifted straight from the Nature Channel, but in this context, it's hilarious.

When Kockroach finally rips the door off its hinges and walks out onto the streets of New York, he's terrified that some giant human being will stomp on him, which is not an entirely irrational fear: He sees billboards of enormous people all over Times Square. Convinced that smiling will ward off predators, he smiles all the time-- hardly the strangest thing about a man who eats his own regurgitated food and then licks his entire body clean.

The funniest parts of this early section show Kockroach learning to speak by mimicking the phrases and tones he hears all around him: "Got a light?" "Looking for a date?" "You got it, sweet pea." "I'm from out of town." "Move along, pal." "Gotta run." It's remarkable how many successful conversations he can have simply by parroting these phrases. As with Chauncey Gardiner, people hear what they want to hear.

Having the mind of a cockroach, he quickly finds success as a gangster. "Male cockroaches," the narrator notes, "are positively Washingtonian." (None of that pesty trouble with a conscience.) In one of many mock-serious interruptions, Knox explains the metaphysical dimension of his existence: "Cockroaches are not religious creatures. They take what they can as their due and live by a simple morality hardwired into their tiny brains. They never stop to contemplate their place in the great scheme of the universe for they have no doubts about their place in the great scheme of the universe. They are cockroaches. And whatever that sentence implies, they deal with it by surviving."

Strong and determined as he is, Kockroach needs guidance, and the novel needs some moral anguish to make it more than just a clever joke. Fortunately, that comes from a tortured soul named Mickey "Mite" Pimelia, a little hustler in a green suit who latches on to Kockroach for the rest of his life. (There's a joke in there for entomologists.) (No, I won't explain it; if that bugs you, look it up.) Mite narrates alternating chapters in his slang-ridden, noir voice, describing their parasitic relationship from the first moment he spots Kockroach strutting around Times Square: "It was the middle of that whole damn circus, beneath the Camel cigarette sign just off Forty-fourth Street, whilst I was handing out my leaflets with the sketch of a stripper looking oh so come-hither, that first I spots the Boss."

Mite isn't sure if this weird character is "the coolest cat on the Square . . . or some physically disabled vet," but together they rise quickly through the mob and eventually into national politics. (I have to mention here another Metamorphosis takeoff, a marvelous novel by Marc Estrin called The Half-Life of Gregor Samsa, which imagines the big bug surviving his family's abuse in Vienna and becoming a crucial figure in 20th-century history.)

Tyler Knox is the pseudonym of William Lashner, a Philadelphia lawyer who publishes crime novels under his own name, and much of Kockroach is classic gangster parody, particularly those chapters narrated by Mite, who spends more time channeling Raymond Carver than Franz Kafka: "The only thing I ever been sure of, Champ, wheresever I go, disaster it follows sure as blood from a wound."

But there's plenty of rueful, Kafkaesque reflection on what it means to be human, too. Though Kockroach is a stunningly efficient killer, he can't understand the excess of human violence. His ordinary insect fears sound weirdly profound and existential. Who better to explain Shakespeare's lament: "As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods"? His kind has survived several cosmic calamities over millions of years, but once he's infected with the singularly human trait of language, Kockroach begins to pine for companionship, satisfaction, some assurance about the future. Only by clinging to his essential roachness can he hope to conquer the world.

Don't be squeamish; pick up this witty, unsettling book. Even if you can't read, you'll enjoy the little flip-movie printed on the bottom right corner of each page that shows a cockroach transforming into Kockroach. You'll think of him every time you turn on the bathroom light and surprise those little scavengers going about their business while you go about yours.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...

[Abigail Espinal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gritty satirical take on the costs of the American dream. Equal parts chaotic, funny, and wonderfully thrilling, Knox's "Kockroach", a uniquely bizarre remix of Kafka's classic "The Metamorphosis" is a testament to classic crime noirs everywhere and may very well go down as one of the best in the genre! I stumbled upon this gem by chance at a second-hand shop out of my home state. Thank goodness I found it, because this novel pulled me in like a vacuum; I could not resist! The story gets you like a bug under your skin. Or a cockroach. Or perhaps, as the novel dictates, like hunger...

[Robert Penick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun work of genius. I went in thinking it was a one-note play on "The Metamorphosis, but it's a crime novel, a buddy movie, and a commentary on the individual's dependence on others. Eminently readable, I really didn't want the book to end. Blatta-Blatta!

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable and worth the read.

[Jennifer]

My friend Robert gave me this book. I remember it being pretty darn weird.

[MariaGrazia Bacilieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Non riesco a trovare una chiave di lettura in questo spettacolare romanzo. Ma è meraviglioso!
La graduale consapevolezza che mai soffoca l'istinto porta il protagonista ad essere qualcosa di unico.

[Kevin Bergeron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kockroach wakes one morning to find his body has been morphed into that of a human. A horrible development for sure, but cockroaches don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on the past. So Kockroach leaves his colony and ventures forth into the bright light and the strange society of humans. Cockroaches have been around for millions of years and will probably still be here long after humans are gone, because they are very adaptable, so it’s no surprise that Kockroach finds a pair of sunglasses and quickly learns to adapt to his new condition, observing human behavior from the shadows in which he lurks, then gradually interacting with humans, imitating their sounds and gestures until he learns the language and modes of behavior. Cockroaches are self-centered creatures whose every instinct is pointed to survival. A cockroach wants only food, sex, dominance, and security within the colony; a lot like humans, in other words. So Kockroach fits right in, and not only adapts, but thrives and prospers. How can this be, when so many humans try and fail? What makes Kockroach different is that he is unscrupulous. When he plays the human game, he plays to win. And win he does, climbing the ladder of success first in the mafia, then in the extermination business, leaving behind a trail of betrayal and ruined lives. But Knockroach doesn’t care, because it’s just not the way his brain is wired. As the book ends Kockroach has his sights set on the supreme prize, and I have a feeling he’s going to win it.

"Kockroach" is a blast to read cover to cover, loaded with humor and insight. The author knows a lot about cockroaches, and gets you to really feel for this seemingly heartless creature. Kockroach does have feelings, and the passages describing the safety and security he felt within the swarming mass of his fellows, crawling over one another and happily chirping, touching antennae and smelling each other’s pheromones and so forth, are really quite moving, in a strange kind of way.

"Kockroach" may not gain a place among the great classics of literature, but I found it an inventive, wonderfully quirky and offbeat novel, thoroughly entertaining and beautifully written, unlike anything else I’ve read. I really enjoyed this book.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very funny bankshot, with left english
off of Kafka's Metamorphosis. Instead of a
man waking up and finding out that he's turned
into a roach, a roach checks in to a roach motel
and finds, to his disgust, that he's become a man.
It's a perfect set-up for taking a shot at someone:
what kind of a guy does a roach turn into?
Your cousin Louie? Michael Jackson? Dick Cheyney?

It should be no surprise that he goes first in to
organized crime, then legitimate business, then politics.
Readers will no doubt assign various contemporary
political figures to the roles laid out in the book-
that's part of the fun, but by no means the whole story.

It would have been tempting for the author-who may
or may not be named `Tyler Knox'-to play this story
strictly for laughs. But Knox is better than that.
What he does is create a combination of the pure
naturalism of John McFee, the noirish vision of
Raymond Chandler and the wiseacre perspective of
Damon Runyon.

Does that sound like a set-up for a parody? It's not.
Instead, it's a book that is so seductive that you'll
find yourself reading it long after your eyes have
started to droop. It's a book whose narrator-the Kockroach's
mite- will stay with you for days after
the read is done.

For fans of complex fiction, this is a gem. The
narrator is a subordinate character who's more
interesting that the `roach of the title. But his
fascination stems from his relationship to the
roach-turned-man. His negotiations of the terms
of that relationship and his unreliable narration
are what gives this book its exceptional power.

Unlike most fiction that relies on a device like
Kockroach's, this novel stayed with me for a long
time. Brilliant might be too big a word for this,
but not by much.

Lynn Hoffman, author of bang BANG, ISBN
9781601640005

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his first published novel, Tyler Knox takes Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis to that place some of us have imagined it could go – in the opposite direction. In the opening scene, we are graphically introduced into the metamorphosis of a Blatella germanica cockroach, into the human form of Blatta – Mr. Blatta, to you. The explicit descriptions of his transformation leave little to the imagination and set the stage for a fascinating journey.

In addition to Blatta, two other characters play a major role in the storytelling – Mite, a would-be gangster who befriends Blatta soon after his transformation and then becomes his agent of sorts as they climb the ladder of power in the underworld of 1950s New York City; and, Celia, the first woman Blatta meets. She becomes a major player in his life and reveals her side of the story interspersed between Mite’s take on things and Blatta’s version of his life.

As the tale progresses, it is clear that Knox has done his homework. He has researched cockroach anatomy, physiology and behaviour and he does a bang-up job comparing and contrasting it to Blatta’s new life.

With the fear of cockroaches being almost innate in American society, it is very disturbing to find that there are more similarities between us and them than we’d like to know about, much less admit. It is even more disturbing to discover that there are times we can truly sympathize with Blatta and pity him – all the while knowing that if one of his cousins came crawling out from under our fridge, we would squash him without remorse.

For an entertaining and intellectually stimulating escape from life as you know it – check out Kockroach – you may never look at cockroaches, or gangsters, the same way.

[Mia - · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi è piaciuto questo libro. 
Leggero senza essere stupido, semplice senza essere banale.
L'autore si destreggia bene con la sua idea di rovesciare quel gran capolavoro che è "La metamorfosi" di quel gran genio di Kafka limitandosi al parallelismo solo nelle prime pagine, quelle in cui racconta di un piccolo scarafaggio che si risveglia umano, uomo.

Per il resto la storia racconta della lenta presa di coscienza di questo cambiamento e della progressiva ascesa di Jerry Blatta dai bassifondi ai piani alti passando per la varipinta malavita newyorkese.
Tutto visto dal punto di vista di un insetto fattosi uomo, che vede mutare i propri desideri e i propri istinti, ma rimanendo, in fondo, pur sempre, uno scarafaggio.
Tutto condito con personaggi azzeccati, come la seconda voce narrante, quella di Acaro, compare di Jerry Blatta. Magari un po' vittime dello stereotipo del malavitoso ma che riescono a coinvelgere e a far sorridere. Ma anche a riflettere ogni volta che il protagonista si trova a paragonare natura umana e natura da scarafaggio.

Insomma, non un capolavoro ma sicuramente un buon libro, adatto al caldo che fa.

[Victory Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fucking brilliant creative fascinating idea. Set in the 50s New York a cockroach gets somehow transformed into a human, reverse Metamorphoses! I got so excited when the chapter of the Automat started, I clapped. Yes I'm lame that way. If you don't know what the Automat is... look it up. It's great. Apparently the idea of it was better than the execution but still. My one minor gripe is that sometimes one has to hold one's skepticism, Kockroach adapts far too easily to human life but perhaps that's because he's a cockroach and they adapt really fast, but still. Anyway, fantastic idea and I love that it's set in the 50s with the fast talking slang and men and hats, the jive and the cool, cool, people in the grittyness and brilliance of New York city.

It got a little long at the end, I really wanted things to turn out really happy dandy (hrm seems I've gotten a little infected with their slang) but it's still a good and the ending is amusing although of course you again have to suspend a great deal of disbelief.

[Marlowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa woke up one morning having been transformed into a bug (though the species is unspecified, it’s generally imagined as a sort of cockroach). In Kockroach, Knox imagines a cockroach who wakes to find himself having been transformed into a man. Hilarity ensues.

I really enjoyed the dialogue in the book – particularly in the first part where Kockroach is just learning to be human, learning to talk by imitating the sounds he hears. I found Mite’s vocabulary a little jarring – the “street kid” slang mixed in with $20 words – but it made sense as his character was developed.

The social commentary is, perhaps, a little bludgeon-y, but the novel was funny and interesting enough to carry it over. I found myself laughing out load quite often, and frequently had to interrupt my poor housemates to read them a particularly interesting/funny passage.

I didn’t find it to be a particularly deep novel, but it was fun. An excellent way to spend a few hours on a broken train waiting for a new engine to arrive!

[Kristopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever Americanized flip of Kafka's "Metamorphosis" this book opens with a confused man finding himself in a seedy motel room frightened by the flashing red neon of the light outside. There is a body hanging from the ceiling, a body bearing the very same face that this confused and frightened man now possesses. Without giving too much away, the confused man used to be a cockroach, and has somehow taken over this man's now ended life. It is the 1920's in New York, and the cockroaches become mob-bosses.
With strange insight into the lives and thoughts of cockroaches the narrative flips between a first person in-the-moment tale of the evolution of Kockroach's thought as he becomes increasingly important in the New York mob world, and a reflective look on "how it all went down" from the perspective of his side-kick.
This is a fun read, and has a few levels to keep you entertained.